There has been a lot of excitement this week about an unadjusted opinion poll by Ipsos Mori which shows Labour ahead of the Conservatives by 43 points to 40. Given that the Conservatives have been leading the polls since the election was called, with anything up to a 20+ point margin, this has understandably raised […]
Theresa May and the Art of Doing Nothing
Despite having a limited set of policies – and not being particularly tied to any beyond tautologies such as ‘Brexit means Brexit’ – Theresa May has in a short time moved from Home Secretary to Prime Minister, and looks set to continue after 8th June with an increased majority. May has achieved this through a […]
MPs vote for early general election
Following on from yesterday’s shock announcement that the Prime Minister wants to hold an early election, MPs today voted by a margin of 522 to 13 to take the country to the polls in early June. ‘But wait’, I hear you cry, ‘I thought one of the “achievements” of the 2010 coalition was to fix […]
Supreme Court Brexit judgement
This morning the Supreme Court handed down its judgement in the ‘Brexit case’, which included two other related cases from Northern Ireland. Broadly speaking, two questions were put before the court: Does the Government have the power to invoke Article 50 without the consent of Parliament, using a technique called the Royal Prerogative? Do the […]
Richmond Park by-election results
On Friday morning political animals woke up to the unexpected result of the Liberal Democrats winning Richmond Park on a vote swing of over 20%. A by-election had been triggered in the constituency by the resignation of the incumbent Conservative MP, Zac Goldsmith, over the government’s decision to go ahead with a third runway at […]
Should Corbyn remain leader of the Labour Party?
Next week the Labour Party will formally start a leadership contest, which has been triggered by the vote of no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn by his MPs (also referred to as the Parliamentary Labour Party, or PLP) following the resignation of most of his shadow cabinet. Corbyn has refused to step down and, after a […]
Boris Johnson is Foreign Secretary
Depending on how closely you watch politics, you may have either had nightmares or woken up to the fact that Boris Johnson is now Foreign Secretary – announced as part of the first wave of Theresa May’s ministerial appointments. Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary. I’ll let that sink in for a minute before continuing… First […]
Budget 2015
Last Wednesday, George Osborne stood up in the House of Commons and delivered the first Conservative budget since 1996. It contained a lot of pre-trailed measures, a few surprises and a couple of masterstrokes. You can view the full details on gov.uk, and I have extracted the main measures and provided some commentary below. Cuts […]
What now for the Liberal Democrats?
After the worst results since the formation of the party in 1988 (or since 1970 if you include its predecessor), the question of what happens to the Liberal Democrats now is an interesting one. As I see it, there are two broad possibilities: a fightback which results in a return as the third largest party, […]
General election results
The results of the polls are all in and, to the amazement of pretty much everyone, Cameron has not only seen off a challenge from Labour but also managed to obtain a majority, albeit a slim one. My predictions were way off the mark, although I can take some consolation in the company I keep […]